I don't know if any of you guys have been following this over the past day or so.

So yesterday (Monday) it went up on the NZ and Australia iTunes pages as it turned midnight and into Tuesday in that part of the world. It was priced at $NZ 15.99 then, which seemed reasonable.

Then overnight for me it was apparently taken down and wasn't up on the UK and US sites on Tuesday morning UK/Monday night US. So everyone thought it had been a big scam and they just put it out long enough to gain the sales to extend the copyright and take it down again.

Then it came back up around morning Eastern Time priced at $40/£35!! So people were happy it was sticking around, but mad about the price hike. For me, £35 for something that you're going to listen through maybe twice at the most – no digital booklet either – is too steep. It's almost as if it's prohibitively high, that they don't want people to access it. It's really hard to see Apple's motives with all of this. There's no mention on the official site. It's all a bit of a farce.

May sweet memories of friends from the pastAlways comes to you, when you look for them

two interesting studio trax are "Hold Me Tight" (definitely a different take than the WTB one), and the piano-less (it sounds to me, anyway) "Money." The vocals sound like the final take ones (unless John and Paul were THAT good at duplicating their voices!), but the song sounds harder, edgier (maybe because of the lack of-- or very low levels of-- piano?).

Some of the live BBC stuff is great, too...different than the two compilations...a few "Roll Over Beethovens" but one, in particular, has George doing an extended guitar solo-- the only time (other than maybe the Star Club-- and I can't recall that album that well as I haven't heard it in ages) I've ever heard that.

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

Yes James, it is a most curious business, but I admit to buying a dozen or so tracks. Mattal, "Money (That's What I Want)" is indeed without the piano overdub and it sounds fantastic; Ringo's drums really stand out. Take 2 of "One After 909" features a weird but kind of cool solo by George and at the end you can make out John saying "What kind of solo was that?". All of the album outtakes are fun and interesting. I bought one of each, but I only bought three of the "Live at the BBC" tracks. It seems most of the best ones are on the official "BBC" albums and that's fine with me. All of the various live cuts can get a little mind boggling. I already had the demos "I'm In Love" and "Bad To Me" and didn't really notice any better sound quality here, but if you haven't got them it's worth getting.